Righty Loosey, Lefty Tighty

Every time I work on my old cars, I pick up a new piece of mechanical trivia. Most of the time it’s something small — but sometimes it’s the kind of lesson that sticks with you.

Take the day my son Avery and I got a flat tire on our ’51 Pontiac Eight. No big deal — we’ve changed plenty of tires over the years. But this time, the left rear lugs wouldn’t budge. In fact, the harder we cranked, the tighter they seemed to get.

Just then, my neighbor spotted us puzzling over the jacked-up Pontiac, tire iron in hand. He ambled over, pointed at the end of the stud, and said, “That there is your problem.” I asked him what he meant, and he tapped the small “R” stamped into the bolt.

Back before the 1960s, he explained, many cars used reverse-threaded lugs on the driver’s side. The idea was to keep them from loosening while the wheel turned. On these, “Righty Loosey, Lefty Tighty” was the rule.

Sure enough, I turned the wrench the “wrong” way — and the lug popped free like it was never stuck at all.

From that day on, I learned not to take even the simplest rules for granted. In the world of vintage cars, sometimes you have to forget what you know… or at least turn it backwards.